


Touch, Where Do You Lead

by DefaltManifesto



Series: Soft Dom!Cullen [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: (It's gentle nothing severe), Angst, Control Issues, Hand Jobs, Kneeling, M/M, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Platonic BDSM, Punishment, Shibari, Soft Dom!Cullen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 03:18:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13673166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DefaltManifesto/pseuds/DefaltManifesto
Summary: Three times a week, Cullen makes Cole hold still.





	Touch, Where Do You Lead

**Author's Note:**

> So I love sub!Cullen. A lot. But then I thought soft Dom!Cullen could be fun too. The guy has control issues and so frequently he's used his control to hurt people in his care in the past so he'd probably want to be able to have control and use it for good too. I've got three fics total planned. This one which explores the sexual and non-sexual aspects of him and Cole's relationship. The next one is focusing on the sexual aspect and the last will focus on the non-sexual side. 
> 
> In between those I'll likely be posting all my other Dragon Age fics...
> 
> Comments are loved! Title from Touch by Daft Punk which I think is a very Cole song

The clock ticks on Cullen’s desk, every second like the last and yet somehow he has the distinct feeling that each one is slower. Beside him, Cole kneels, his pale skin looking as though it has more warmth than usual thanks to the many candles Cullen has lighting his office for the nights he works until dawn. The curtains to his windows are drawn. The view of Cole done up in lengths of dark green rope which Cullen had blushed and stuttered his way through buying with Bull at a reputable shop in Orlais is for his eyes only after all.

A sudden inhale indicates that Cole has come back to himself. Cullen watches out of the corner of his eye as he flexes his arms against the ropes that twine up and down in a crisscross as they hold them behind his back. The reminder that he can’t go anywhere sinks in and Cole relaxes into it once more. Cullen turns his gaze back to Scout Harding’s most recent report from the Emerald Graves.

It surprised him, when Cole came to him with such a request instead of Bull who would be the obvious choice, or Dorian who was at least well experienced. Cullen had…dabbled. The people he’d played with had wanted to fight though and Cullen had spent too much of his life forcing others into things for real to be able to stomach such a thing. Cole doesn’t want to fight. He just wants to know someone else is there, that someone else is responsible and in control and all he has to do is obey.

He’d been suspicious at first. Cole, thanks to Varric, seemed to have been taking to his newfound humanity well, but when he’d requested it from Cullen it sounded so much like everything he’d been longing for over the last few months he’d been convinced that Cole was just trying to help him. But no, that hadn’t been it. As a spirt, it’d been easy to let people’s thoughts and desires and wishes flow through his mind, but now, it made him frantic. It was too much sometimes, Cole said. Everyone needed so much help, but he was too human to be able to accommodate so many people the way he’d been able to in the past. He needed someone to make him hold still.

So three times a week, Cullen makes him hold still.

Cullen finishes notating the report and tucks it away in its appropriate file before looking at Cole. His head is bowed, but thanks to the haircut Dorian insisted on giving him, Cullen can see the way his eyelashes flutter against his cheeks, a sign that while his body is still and his breathing even, his thoughts are still racing and making his eyes twitch under their lids. Cullen rests his hand at the back of Cole’s neck and rubs his thumb along the space where his neck meets his head. Cole lets out a sigh and Cullen smiles when he sees his eyes go still.

In another few minutes, Cullen will have to cut Cole free of his bonds. Then, the night could go several different ways. Most times, Cole stays and curls up in bed with Cullen and while he still doesn’t sleep, the way Cullen holds him through the night suffices as just another form of bondage, except more personal and warm. The simple knowledge that someone is in his bed watching over him does wonders for Cullen himself. It’s rare, but there are times when Cole leaves right after.

The first time it happened, Cullen had stopped him and demanded an explanation, terrified he’d done something wrong. Cole stumbled his way through an explanation that made little sense. Cullen let him go and then found him the following morning with a clearer head.

“Sometimes I just want to remember who _I_ am,” he’d said.

That was something Cullen understood well, though perhaps not in the same way Cole did. He spent so much of his time in Kirkwall trying to be what the Chantry needed, what _Meredith_ needed, that he lost sight of who he was. Even now, he’s not sure who the real Cullen is. He supposes the time for figuring that out will be when Corypheus is dead and he’s able to step down.

Even more rare are the times when Cole wants more. The signs are obvious then. A flush steals across Cole’s neck and cheeks and he can’t control his breathing. A look down shows the outline of his hardening cock in his breeches. The first time it happened, Cullen had panicked. It wasn’t that he wasn’t…interested, or even surprised, but he was terrified about the extra responsibility it placed on them. That first night, he’d unbound Cole’s arms and had Cole jerk off sitting between Cullen’s legs with his head bowed. He’d been oddly silent, a prudish habit no doubt lifted from the heads of others’ given that Cole had never once demonstrated to care much about what people thought of him.

The times after, as they became more comfortable in their roles, Cullen played a more active part. Sometimes he has Cole sit just like that first night. The difference is, now he makes Cole look him in the eye while he does it and that…that’s Cullen favorite because there’s something about the trust in Cole’s eyes that makes him feel like he’s worthy of it. Tonight though…tonight will be something different.

“Ser…”

“One more minute,” Cullen says.

He gets to his feet and does a quick circle around his office, confirming the doors are locked and curtains are drawn, before heading to the ladder that leads to his room. He undoes the latch of the trapdoor and steps inside. There’s not much to do. He mostly wants to let Cole squirm and wonder what’s next. He changes into his sleep clothes and heads back down. Cole is right where he left him, except now Cullen can see his hands twisting together where they’d been clasped behind his back.

“Cole, do you need me to cut you out or can you wait while I untie you?” Cullen asks.

Cole shifts back and forth on his knees and then goes still. “I can wait.”

Cullen kneels behind him and begins to undo the knots with careful and efficient movements. It’s not often but on occasion he has to cut Cole free. He’s glad they’re not at that point. The moment he’s free, Cole turns and wraps his arms around Cullen’s neck, clinging tight to him even as Cullen eases them up into a standing position.

“You’re going to have to let go long enough to get upstairs,” Cullen says.

Cole makes a disgruntled noise but obeys and Cullen follows after. Cullen keeps a firm hand on the back of his neck as he guides him to the bed. He lets Cole stand while he moves to sit at the head of the bed, back against the wall before he gestures for Cole to sit between his legs. Cole’s eyes widen.

“Oh,” he says.

“Did you figure it out on your own or take a look in my mind?” Cullen asks.

Cole flushes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“I know, but it’s a ground rule so there’s going to be some punishment, okay? Nothing you can’t handle. If you need, you know what word to say,” Cullen says, keeping his voice steady. It’s only the second time he’s had to punish Cole. He hopes he manages right.

"Yes, ser,” Cole says, and then crawls onto the bed between Cullen’s legs, back to his chest.

Cullen reaches into the bedside table and pulls out a vial of oil and slicks his right hand with it before setting it aside and looping his left arm around Cole’s middle. From there he has Cole’s middle. From there he has Cole wiggle his soft pants down to his thighs so his cock is free. The first stroke Cullen gives him shocks free a gasp. The next draws a moan and before long, Cole squirms in his gasp, legs moving restlessly until Cullen shifts to hook his legs over Cole’s and keep him still. He strokes again, slow. He’s touched Cole just about everywhere but this is new and he’s struck by the sudden desire to just…explore. And he can.

His fingers loosen to give Cole a teasing, barely there touch instead. The whine it shakes loose from Cole’s chest is more arousing than Cullen thinks it should be, but then he’s trying to unlearn the idea that any pleasure is shameful so he shoves that aside. He hooks his chin over Cole’s shoulder and presses a kiss to his neck. Then another. Cole sighs and threads a hand through Cullen’s hair and gasps as Cullen reaches down to cup his balls, pulling once gently before sliding back up to stroke him with slow, firm movements.

“Ser…”

Cullen removes his hand and Cole twists in his arms, hips pumping up and chasing the sensation. “No, Cole. Time to sleep.”  

“But I…” Cole’s hands drop to the bed and curl into fists. For a moment, Cullen worries he’s pushed too far, but then his hands relax and he nods. “Yes, ser.”

Cullen helps him pull his clothes back on before dousing the lamp and pulling Cole close to his chest. Cole is hard against his hip and he rocks against Cullen’s body. For a moment, Cullen allows it. Doubtless, Cole feels overwhelmed by the pleasure given and then denied so he’ll allow him to soothe the urge a little. When Cole’s breath starts to hitch, Cullen pushes him back.

“Turn around,” he says, voice low. “No more of that.”

Cole makes one more disgruntled noise but obeys. Cullen drifts off to sleep with Cole’s fingers tapping against his arm.


End file.
